Steve Wilson (football commentator)

Steve Wilson is a British football commentator, currently working on the BBC's "Match of the Day" programme.

Wilson previously worked on BBC Radio Five Live and before that at Capital Gold Sport in London where he was number two commentator to now BBC colleague Jonathan Pearce.

He supports fc|Tranmere Rovers and lives in West Sussex.

Radio career

After several years working for Capital Gold and occasional work on Talk Radio (now talkSPORT), Wilson moved to BBC Radio Five Live in the summer of 1998. His first commentary for the network was the opening game of fc|Celtic's title defence in Scotland - a 5-0 hammering of Dunfermline.

Match of the Day

During his first season with the network, Wilson's commentary opportunities were limited, but he impressed enough to be given several outings on Match of the Day. The following season (1999-2000) Wilson's role on Five Live was significantly increased as he shared many more matches with the likes of John Murray, Ian Brown and Simon Brotherton. He also continued his occasional work on Match of the Day and, following Jon Champion's move to ITV in 2001, Wilson became a permanent member of the Match of the Day team.

Because ITV held rights to Premiership highlights between 2001 and 2004, Match of the Day was more infrequent, covering mainly FA Cup and international matches, meaning Wilson was still able to continue commentating on Five Live during this period, but he began to make a name for himself on tv, where he was described by The Observer TV critic as "the best commentator on the 2002 and 2006 World Cups". Since the BBC regained the rights to Premiership highlights in 2004, Wilson has been an integral part of the commentary team and is currently vying with colleagues Jonathan Pearce and Guy Mowbray to succeed number one commentator John Motson when he retires. Throughout Euro 2008 he has commentated on several matches, with high quality.